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Sobibor - Holocaust Propaganda And Reality - Unity of Nobility ...

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34 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR<br />

“Shaul Stark looked after geese; he fed them and weighed them<br />

every day. Once, a goose became ill and died. Frenzel, Bredov,<br />

Wagner and Weiss whipped Stark to death. The man’s last words<br />

were: ‘Avenge me, comrades, avenge me.’” (p. 57)<br />

Moshe Bahir:<br />

“The first one <strong>of</strong> them [the camp SS] whom I encountered when I<br />

came to the camp was Oberscharführer Gustav Wagner. […] He<br />

would snatch babies from their mothers’ arms and tear them to<br />

pieces in his hands.” (p. 149)<br />

“Sometimes Grot would have himself a joke; he would seize a<br />

Jew, give him a bottle <strong>of</strong> wine and a sausage weighing at least a kilo<br />

and order him to devour it in a few minutes. When the ‘lucky’ man<br />

succeeded in carrying out this order and staggered from drunkenness,<br />

Grot would order him to open his mouth wide and would urinate<br />

into his mouth.” (p. 150f.)<br />

“Oberscharführer Paul Bredov, aged forty, a Berliner, was a<br />

human beast in the full sense <strong>of</strong> the word. His direct assignment was<br />

to be in charge <strong>of</strong> the Lazarett [infirmary], but he had additional<br />

jobs in the camp. His beloved hobby was target-shooting. He had a<br />

daily ‘quota’ <strong>of</strong> shooting and killing fifty Jews, all with his automatic<br />

pistol which was never separated from him even for a minute<br />

throughout the day.” (p. 153)<br />

In view <strong>of</strong> the fact that the Encyclopedia <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Holocaust</strong> has accepted<br />

this “documentation” as one <strong>of</strong> only four titles recommended on<br />

the subject <strong>of</strong> Sobibór, one wonders about the quality <strong>of</strong> other books not<br />

recommended by the Encyclopedia authors…<br />

2.3.9. Richard Rashke (1982)<br />

The American journalist Richard L. Rashke published a book entitled<br />

Escape from <strong>Sobibor</strong> 43 in 1982. He had visited a number <strong>of</strong> former<br />

Sobibór detainees – among them T. Blatt, S. Szmajzner and A. Pechersky<br />

– in their homes and interviewed them. The book is a rendition<br />

<strong>of</strong> these interviews – partly in direct speech, partly otherwise. As most<br />

<strong>of</strong> these detainees have made their own statements about their experiences<br />

at Sobibór, we see no reason why we should discuss this book in<br />

43<br />

Richard L. Rashke, Escape from <strong>Sobibor</strong>, Houghton Mifflin, 1982.

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